


Heart of a Hero

by delicatelyglitterywriter



Series: PeterDaisy Sibling AU [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Siblings AU, just because we all need the peter/daisy sibling dynamic in our lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 12:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14737086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicatelyglitterywriter/pseuds/delicatelyglitterywriter
Summary: Powers and suits don't make a person a hero. It's their heart that makes them a hero.





	1. Head

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @daisynicos on Twitter

It’s late when Peter gets back. He sneaks in the window easily, using his suit to climb on the roof; it creates far less noise than trying to climb in, the right way up. He slowly slides it shut with his foot, as not to wake Aunt May or Ms May.

He freezes when he hears Daisy’s voice.

“Wrong room, baby bro.”

Peter’s gaze snaps to the desk chair where Daisy’s smirking. His eyes go wide in horror.

_Crap._

He drops from the roof, landing surprisingly softly on his feet. He tears the top half of his suit off, trying anything to distract Daisy from what she’d just seen.

“Oh, uh, Daisy, I, uh, I can explain,” Peter stutters out. Daisy tilts her head, an amused smile tugging at her lips.

“I look forward to it, _Spiderboy_.”

“It’s, uh, actually, Spiderman?”

“Whatever you say.” Daisy throws a t-shirt at him. “Put some clothes on, and then we talk.”

She leaves the room, probably to get a snack and Peter lets out a long sigh. He’s completely screwed.

When he’s dashed across the hall to change his pants, he returns. He would have hidden in his room, but he knows if he took too long Daisy would literally break down his door, strap him to a chair and torture the information out of him.

And Peter knows how much her punches hurt. He doesn’t want to be beat up by her.

So, he returns to her room and shows her several videos and news articles on his phone. Presently, Daisy looks up from the phone, gaping.

“You...You’re an actual... _superhero_?”

Peter nods. “Yeah. I’m a kid by day, a superhero by night.”

Daisy considers him a moment, tossing the phone on her desk. She gets up.

“Wait until mom and Aunt May hear about this!”

Peter’s hand shoots out and grabs her wrist.

“No!”

Daisy raises her eyebrows, yanking her arm free. “Wow, any louder and Dorris next door will file a complaint.”

“Please, please, _please_ don’t tell either one of the May’s,” Peter begs, holding his fists in front of him. He’s never been so desperate for a secret to be kept. And Daisy seems far too chill for his liking.

She leans back casually in her desk chair, twirling her hair. “Why shouldn’t I? What do I have to gain from staying quiet?”

Peter watches Daisy turn her back on him as he considers an answer. “The knowledge that you’re the best sibling ever?”

Daisy’s silent, staring straight ahead at the wall. Peter waits for her to respond, but it doesn’t come. He fears he’s said the wrong thing, but there’s no way to tell for sure without seeing her face. Timidly, he reaches out his hand, but stops, scared of what might happen if he touches her. He doesn’t want to speak, either. He’s scared of what he might hear if he does.

But, finally, after what feels like an eternity, she speaks. Her voice is barely above a whisper, but in the silent room, she may as well have been yelling.

“What happens if you die out there?”

Peter doesn’t know how to answer that question. “What?”

Daisy spins around to face him, and Peter feels like he’s just been slapped when he sees the look on her face.

“You’re my only sibling, Pete. You’re one of the last people left in my life. I...I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

“Daisy, you’re not going to-”

“Don’t,” Daisy cuts in, closing her eyes momentarily, and opens them again when she resumes talking. “Being a superhero is a dangerous job. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Peter lciks his lips and looks down. He hadn’t thought about it that way. What _would_ happen if something _were_ to happen to him out there? What would happen to Daisy, to Aunt May and Ms May? What would happen to _them_?

But, at the same time, he can’t let innocent people get hurt. He has the capacity to help them, so he should...shouldn’t he?

But his family…

But innocent lives…

But Daisy…

But those not as lucky as her…

But...

But…

Peter sinks down onto the bed, suddenly not sure what he wants anymore. Deep down in his heart, he knows what’s right. But the right thing hurts. It hurts a lot. He blinks back tears, feeling as if he’s being torn in two.

He doesn’t know what to do.

So, he thinks. What should he do? He thinks hard about it, until something Aunt May said to him once comes to mind:

_“If you’re unsure about what to do, pretend you’ve already made the decision. How does that make you feel inside? If it makes you feel good, satisfied, and proud, then it’s the right thing.”_

So that’s what Peter does. He closes his eyes and pretends he’s already made the decision to stay at home and not be a hero. It doesn’t make him feel any different. The tiniest bit guilty, yes, but he can reason his way to peace, or at least something that feels like peace.

Then he scraps that decision and pretends he’s decided to be Spiderman. He feels good about it. Yes, he does feel a bit guilty about worrying about his family, but he feels satisfied with each person he imagines saving. He feels scared, but a good sort of scared. Like, he might not want to, but also that it’s the life he’s meant to live.

He exhales and opens his eyes, knowing what he has to do.

“If I do get hurt, it will be saving someone who couldn’t save themselves,” he tells Daisy. Daisy shakes her head.

“You can’t, Pete.”

“I have to.”

The tears are flowing freely down Daisy’s cheeks, but despite this, she lets out a laugh and shakes her head.

"You sound like one of those superheroes in the movies.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Not I don’t. And I’ll be fine, DJ.”

Daisy unexpectedly launches herself on him, pinning him to the bed. He grunts and lifts his arms up to hug her back.

“You had better be,” she whispers in his ear. “Or else I’ll kill you myself.”

Peter huffs out a laugh. “Noted.”


	2. Heart

In the end, Peter and Daisy come to an agreement that he could go and do superhero stuff, as long as he called her everyday if he wasn’t home by six. On the weekends, he had to call her once at eleven o’clock, and once at four o’clock, just so she knows he’s okay. 

And he should call her  _ immediately _ if he gets hurt, no exceptions.

 

(And of course, he could call her anytime if he just needed to hear her voice)

 

It turns out to be a good system. Daisy gets to hear he’s okay, and her voice gives him comfort in the scary world of superhero-ing. He takes to calling her again at nine o’clock if he’s not home by then, which becomes more common as he goes on.

Presently, it’s two past four on a Saturday afternoon, and he’s sitting on a rooftop, eating a hotdog, talking on the phone with Daisy.

“...and then I rescued this old lady’s cat from a tree, helped a little girl sell her girl scout cookies, and stopped a bad guy from robbing a hotdog cart. The owner, Pedro, gave me two free hotdogs!”

On the other end he can hear Daisy’s smile as she speaks. “Sounds like you’ve had a busy day.”

“Oh yeah, I did,” Peter says leaning back with a smile on his own face. It’s nice having a sister who supports him. There’s a moment’s silence before Daisy speaks, her tone far more solemn this time.

“Hey, Pete, this is gonna sound super cheesy, but I just want you to know: I’m real proud of you.”

The comment takes him by surprise. “Really? You are?”

“Yeah. I mean, you only have a suit to help you, and I have actual powers, but I’m not...brave enough to actually go out and use them for good. I think what you’re doing is really cool.”

He’s known her long enough to read between the lines of what she’s really saying, and it makes his heart hurt. 

“Hey, no, no, just because you don’t use your powers doesn’t mean you aren’t a hero,” he says, his voice earnest as he looks out over the city. “Heroes are so much more than just powers and suits. You taught me that, y’know. You taught me that it’s a person’s heart that makes them a hero. And, you...you’ve got the most heroic heart of anyone I know, DJ.”

“I’m not doing any superhero stuff like you,” Daisy sighs. Peter can imagine her flopping backwards on her mattress. 

“No, but you help me do superhero stuff,” Peter points out. “That’s basically being a superhero. Plus, you help take care of Fitz and Jemma next door when their dad  can’t, and you help Aunt May and your mom around the house, and you look after me, and you’re always stopping to help people in little ways, and-”

“Okay, Pete, I get it,” Daisy laughs. Peter smiles, and when Daisy talks again, her voice has her soft smile in it. “Thanks, Pete.”

“Us heroes gotta stick together, right?” he jokes, but he knows Daisy knows he’s really being serious.

“Yeah.”

Peter looks around again and he catches sight of a masked man inside a bank, with a gun. “Hey, DJ, I gotta go; I see someone robbing a bank. See you back at the apartment.”

“Okay. Be careful Spidey-boy. Be home for dinner.”

Peter smiles and rolls his eyes. “Okay. See ya. Love ya. Bye.”

“Love you too. Bye.”

He hangs up, pulls on his mask, and swings off to foil another bad guy.


	3. Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warning:** Canon-typical violence

Peter’s been beat up by Daisy before, but none of that could have prepared him for a real life fight. This guy’s punches hurt like nothing else, and Peter doesn’t have the skills to know how to block them. He only knows evasive Parkour moves, and Parkour can only get him so far right now.

He’s scared, more scared than he’s ever been in his entire life.

But still, he tries. He casts his webs, in an attempt to get Mr Toomes to stop; to try and restrain him. It’s in vain, thought, since his webs only get him tossed around in the air and on the ground. It’s like being on a very painful carnival ride.

He wishes he hadn’t fought with Daisy over the phone. If he dies now, his last words to Daisy would have been angry ones. He didn’t mean what he said; his emotions just got the best of him. He thinks Daisy knows that, but he wishes he could tell her.

And then he realises: he _does_ sound like one of those heroes in the movies. He would laugh if he wasn’t being beaten up. Daisy had been right all along.

He _hates_ it when she’s right.

He sighs, coughing as Mr Toomes (or the Vulture, whatever he calls himself), lifts him up by his hood. He knows he’s going to die, and there’s nothing he can do about it. And his last memory is going to be of Daisy being right about him.

What a crap way to die.

He braces himself for the inevitable killing blow, but instead he finds himself knocked sideways, out of Mr Toomes’ clutches. He tumbles to the ground and groans.

“Stand down, Mr Toomes!” he hears Daisy’s voice shout.

“My name is the Vulture!” Toomes growls back. Peter raises his head, and sees Daisy there, in a superhero suit all of her own.

“D-Daisy?” he utters, before coughing twice more.

“Stay down, Pete,” she instructs him. “I’m going to help you.”

“You Parkers really are _stupid_ ,” the Vulture says in utter disbelief.

“Actually, not technically a Parker,” Daisy corrects. “But never mind that: you stay the hell away from my baby brother.”

His face his obscured by the mask, but Peter can swear Mr Toomes roll his eyes, before diving for Daisy. Daisy raises her arm and sends a blast of air so powerful in his direction that she’s able to hold Toomes in place.

“Peter, go!” she yells.

“But-”

“Go _now_!”

Peter knows better than to argue with that tone, but he still doesn’t do as he’s told. He’s a superhero, and he is _going_ to see through, no matter what Daisy says. Sure, he may have been about to die, but if he leaves Daisy here, _she’s_ going to be the one to die. He can’t have that on his conscience; he can’t let her die for him. It’s not right.

So, he stands to his feet, as if he’s going. He even walks a few paces away. Then, he turns back and sees Daisy straining against Mr Toomes trying to swoop at her. He sees Mr Toomes getting closer, and he knows Daisy can’t hold it much longer.

He runs right at them.

He jumps, casting webs at Mr Toomes.

“Peter, no!” he hears Daisy yell.

He doesn’t listen.

He lets himself swing around as the webs curl across Mr Toomes body and suit.

He holds on by one hand and shoots another web directly into the jet of the wing above him, swinging around before he can watch it shutter and fail.

He knows it’s worked when he feels himself begin to fall.

He hears Daisy call out his name again as he lands, but it’s dulled by the explosion.

He shields his head until the noise stops. Then, he raises his head and sees Mr Toomes laying a little way off, in amongst the fire. He looks unconscious, or at least, too injured to move. On the other side of the flames, he can hear Daisy scream his name, again. He knows she’s coming for him, but her suit isn’t fireproof as far as he knows.

“Stay back!” he calls as loud as he can. He doesn’t know if she hears him; he doesn’t know how strong his voice is.

But he doesn’t stop to check. He has to save Mr Toomes. He stumbles over to Mr Toomes, avoiding the flames best he can. He grabs Mr Toomes’ arms and drags him out of the fire before collapsing beside him.

“Pete?”

He feels Daisy’s cool hand on his cheek. He squints at the face above him until his vision comes back into focus.

“DJ?”

“Oh thank heavens,” Daisy whispers, lifting his head into her arms. “I was so scared.”

“‘M fine, Daisy,” he says right before dissolving into a coughing fit again. Daisy slaps him on the cheek, not harshly, but hard enough for it to sting a little.

“You, Peter Parker, are the stupidest teenager I have ever met. But strangely, the most heroic. I mean, you just saved the man who tried to kill you.”

“He’s Liz’s dad. ‘M not gonna let her lose her dad like I did.”

Daisy gives him a squeeze, and helps him to his feet. “Come on, Spidey-boy. Let’s get you home before mom or Aunt May suspects something’s up.”

He drapes his arm around her shoulder and walks with her away from the fight.

“So, your super suit…”

“Like it? I dropped by Mr Stark’s office about a week ago.”


End file.
